Dominating American Thought and Policy

His blindfolded face has become a symbol of both personal and national
agony  the continuing ordeal of the 52 American hostages remaining in
Iran, and the grinding frustration of a U.S. that has been unable to
win their release from almost 14 months in captivity. But to the
millions who see his often published picture, he is a man without
identity, the unknown hostage. The State Department will not disclose
his name, for fear of upsetting his already distraught family.

That too is symbolic: as individual human beings, the hostages have all
but vanished from the...